The Full Picture

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Who is involved

The innovative SERVIR system is the result of collab-

oration between many partners. The US Government,

through direct technical and financial support from

the National Aeronautical and Space Administration

(NASA) and the US Agency for International

Development (USAID), and indirect support from the

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

(NOAA) and the US Geological Survey (USGS), works

with CATHALAC, the Central American Commission

on Environment and Development (CCAD), and

participating countries to implement the system. Key

partners include the World Bank, the United Nations

Environmental Programme (UNEP), the Nature

Conservancy (TNC), the Institute for the Application

of Geospatial Technology (IAGT), the University of

Alabama in Huntsville (UAH), the University of

Maryland (UMD), and others.

Future plans

The SERVIR system is expanding functionality to

provide decision support for climate prediction, coral

reef monitoring, biodiversity conservation, agricultural

crop forecasting, and air quality monitoring. Upon

request, the system can be replicated and tailored to the

needs of other geographic regions. Current expansion

efforts are focused on Africa.

implications for flash flood forecasting. In Panama and El Salvador,

weather forecasters on the major television stations make use of

SERVIR forecasts in their daily televised weather reports.

Disaster response

– The SERVIR system has become an impor-

tant tool for policy makers in times of emergency. In November

2006, a stationary front in the Caribbean caused severe flooding

and landslides in Panama. Roughly 1,300 people were left home-

less, while 13 were reported dead or missing. Faced with further

damage to the country as the storm continued to develop, the

President and Vice President of Panama, along with the Ministers

of Housing and Health, visited the SERVIR facility in Panama to

get assistance with formulating a course of action to address the

crisis. The analysis by the SERVIR team regarding potential scenar-

ios of the storm provided the Panamanian Government, for the

first time in the nation’s history, with important information to

issue advisories to the communities at risk. To ensure that the

vulnerable populations received evacuation notification, the civil

protection authority worked with private phone companies to send

warnings via cell phone text messaging. As a result of the advi-

sories, the inhabitants of Panama’s northwestern provinces were

prepared for the flooding and landslides, which occurred as fore-

cast. Among others, the SERVIR team has also provided decision

support in the case of Hurricanes Stan and Dean, in the flooding

of the Sixaola River between Costa Rica and Panama, and the 2007

Mountain Pine Ridge fires in Belize.

Fire monitoring

– SERVIR is used by managers of protected areas

throughout Central America. By monitoring hotspots throughout

the region, the system’s Web Fire Mapper, implemented in part-

nership with the University of Maryland, detects burning fires and

can alert users via e-mail about the location of the fires. In

Nicaragua, the forestry department sends out ground crews to

assess the situation upon receipt of fire alerts from the system.

Fire alerts can be made available to anyone who requests them

through the SERVIR web portal.

Red tides

– Harmful algal blooms in the ocean indicate toxic

conditions for fishing. Commonly referred to as red tides, algal

blooms can be detected with remote sensing technology. The

SERVIR system makes available satellite data that can be used to

monitor the ocean tides. In El Salvador, for instance, the Ministry

of Health uses SERVIR to check potentially unsafe areas, thereby

avoiding health problems for fish consumers and maintaining an

economically healthy market for domestic consumption and export.

Air pollution

– In May 2007, the countries of Guatemala, Costa

Rica and Nicaragua alerted their citizens of a toxic cloud hover-

ing overhead that was perceived to have blown across the Atlantic

Ocean from Africa. Concerned about breathing the outdoor air,

people remained indoors and authorities considered keeping chil-

dren out of school and even closing businesses. Amid multiple

reports in the media of the toxic African cloud, the SERVIR team

was asked to conduct analyses of the cloud to better understand

the potential threat to the population. Using satellite and model

data from the SERVIR system and recreating the region’s weather

patterns, the team was able to show that the cloud did not origi-

nate in Africa, but within Central America. The ‘toxic cloud’ was

actually smoke from areas burning in Central America, and had

circulated back over the land due to an unusual calming of the

trade winds. Once the media obtained the SERVIR analysis, news

reports allayed public concern about the cloud, and people

returned to normal life.

SERVIR provides resource managers across Mesoamerica with

access to information on daily fire hotspot locations, shown

here as red dots

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